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Friday, January 23, 2015

It's been a bit of an up-and-down week but I wanted to share some peeks at the Accomplishment Journal I finally managed to start putting together this week...

Materials for the cover of what will be my Accomplishment Journal...

In my previous post, I shared a glimpse of the materials that would go into the cover of my Accomplishment Journal, which you can see above. I was finally able to begin sewing my book cover this week, since I had some free time on my hands due to the cancellation of what was to be my first workshop of the new year...

My sewing machine on the table, threaded and ready for sewing my book cover...

Yes, my first workshop of 2015 was cancelled, HOWEVER, there was at least ONE STUDENT that registered for the workshop, so there was some interest in this first offering for the new teaching venue. It took much longer to get even one student to register for my workshops at the local community college before I finally got enough students to make up a whole class to teach...

Trims and embellishments are being sewn down to create a lovely cover I will enjoy looking at every day...

And I have to admit that while figuring out a date to teach I had a niggling feeling that January might have been too soon after the holiday season to teach a creative workshop...

The lining is attached to the cover with all trims sewn down and the manila card stock is cut to fit to add some stiffening to the book cover*

But I had some hopes that there just might be some folks itching to come out for some creative play in the new year...

Detail shot of the inner book lining of tea-dyed muslin

After all of the years of listening and watching as people 'tighten their belts' after the holiday season, I really should have known better than to schedule a creative workshop in January...

Detail shot of the lining and cover seam with all trims tucked in the sewn seam for a nice clean edge finish...

But I got swept up in the excitement of having a new venue to teach from and, of course, I wanted to start right away!

My Accomplishment Journal cover is now sewn and ready to be filled with paper pages to write on, but what papers to use?? Stay tuned...

Learning that my workshop had been cancelled was a bump in my week, but I took the time that would have been spent teaching and used it to finally begin sewing on the cover for what will be my Accomplishment Journal for 2015 and it made my day much better...

I was disappointed about the cancellation of course, but not totally surprised since my intuition had been telling me that holding a workshop in January really was too soon after the spending spree that is the holidays, but know I will know better in the future!

I made a bit of headway on the Accomplishment Journal as you can see from the photos above, but there was a small element that had gone missing - a little sprig of paper flowers I intend to tuck into the cream 'pocket' you can see on the cover flap above.

And that sprig of flowers is not the only thing that has gone missing in my home for other Projects in Process. It seems the fold over elastic for a recycled t-shirt skirt I hoped to complete before the end of 2014 also went missing...

I am now convinced that there is a gremlin in my home stealing my supplies to keep me from finishing my Projects in Process!!

I will be back to share more of my Accomplishment Journal as it progresses to completion and I will be sure to let you know if I catch that little gremlin and get my missing supplies back! ;)

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Okay, so it's 14 days into 2015, but if I have not encountered you since the old year, I'm entitled to say "Happy New Year"!

My dear boyfriend (aka Man Of The House, now that we live together!) thinks this is a silly thing, but that is how I am... ;)

Now, I don't know about YOU, but my new year so far has been quiet yet making an impact. Here is what's happened so far...

My special WOTY journal was created by Kristen Fairgrieve of Bag Lady Lulu - she makes great custom journals! If you are looking for a special one-of-a-kind journal, check her out and tell her The Creative Beast sent you =)

As the New Year commenced, I began to REALLY journal through my Word of the Year for 2015. Last year, I did NOT do any journaling for my word and 2014 was a horrible year of struggle and challenge. But I do have to say, I'm pretty sure using the word MONEY to guide me might have been too loaded a word to use, especially without having a plan for how it would guide me. Chalk it up to another Lesson Learned...

And the next time I think of using the word MONEY as a guiding word, you can bet I'll be journaling it before the year begins!

If you read my previous blog post, you'll know that my WOTY for 2015 is COMMUNITY and here are some lovely things that have happened since the New Year regarding my WOTY:

Two long standing blog buddies have begun to return to blogging this year! I have really missed their presence in 'Blogland', so it was a real treat to see them begin to blog again in 2015...

I signed up to participate in Jennifer Lee's Right Brain Business Plan Ecourse for 2015! I've followed the blog of Jennifer Lee since 2006 and I remember when her Right Brain Business Plan was a simple PDF download tutorial with an audio CD for the guided meditation and it cost all of $19.95!!

I did not buy her PDF at that time but I've watched this Right Brain Business Plan grow into an ecourse, then into a book, and now it is a way for people to learn how to coach other creative entrepreneurs to build their creative businesses in a way that is fun and non-intimidating. I am excited to be in a group of other creative entrepreneurs who are trying to build their own businesses too! It is a new COMMUNITY for 2015...

Also new for this year is a teaching venue in Westlake Village, called Banana Rose...

I responded to a call for instructors I saw online as one of the owners of Banana Rose was looking for more instructors to teach in the small studio in the back of their store. I made an inquiry and before you knew it emails were flying back and forth, and suddenly I was scheduled to teach my "I AM: A French Fold Book" workshop for this month!

During the holidays, I made a trip to meet with the owners and I met with the daughter of the mother-daughter team behind Banana Rose, along with meeting the 'store mascot', a King Charles Spaniel named Triscuit! You can see Triscuit in the photo used for their Facebook page and I'll link to it again so you can see just how cute Triscuit is!

The teaching space can host about 12 students at the most which is what I prefer for teaching venues. I am really excited about this venue and I look forward to my first teaching event, which will be next Tuesday!

IN OTHER NEWS

I've been talking about making a new journal for myself for 2015 and it will be an Accomplishment Journal. During my trip to visit Banana Rose, I saw a little grab bag of embellishments that I came home with. I knew right away that I would be using it as a launching point for my Accomplishment Journal! After I brought it home, I began to find more materials to use for making my Accomplishment Journal:

There are more materials I've assembled for making my journal, which I've shared on my Facebook page, but what with all my WOTY journaling, and homework I have for the Right Brain Business Plan Ecourse, I have yet to make real progress on my journal, but it IS slowly coming together.

I also have a bit of an obsession with finding some values based card decks to use in my daily meditations or to use as a daily reflection practice...While I was journaling my WOTY, I came across an exercise of using card decks to draw for each month of the year, as a sort of 'oracle' for 2015. I have a few card decks of my own, including a tarot deck of lovely color pencil art:

I also made a card deck of pages from my first art journal made at my first Artful Journey Retreat. I couldn't really use it for the 'oracle' exercise of my WOTY journaling since, for me, it is meant to be a 'deck of cards' for keeping my large art journal in a small format:

My art journal pages turned into a deck of cards! Now I can carry with them in my purse to view whenever I want some visual inspiration...

The back of my cards has art from my secondary art book, made from cut pages of the larger art book. I love the look of the colors and script together!

Since doing this 'oracle' exercise, I'm obsessed with finding more card decks that are 'value based', instead of card decks that are meant for 'divining' the future.

I've found quite a fewunique card decks I'm longing for, but one of the assignments for the business ecourse is to create some 'value cards'. I've seen a few cards made by fellow Right Brain entrepreneurs that are sparking my imagination to make a FULL DECK of 'value cards' that can be used for daily/weekly reflection or meditation...

You can bet that if I embark on creating such a deck, I'll share it here with YOU, so stay tuned to see what's next as 2015 begins with some creative ideas sparked!

ABOUT ME

Hi! My name is Monica and I love Love LOVE to make things! You can read all about my creative adventures and experiments here or you can learn more about me HERE...Feel free to contact me with questions!